The Glorious Sons on finding their own sound

With their unmistakable hooks and guitar riffs, the Glorious Sons found their signature sound.

In their first two releases the high-energy erratic rock ‘n’ rollers emulated their 1970s idols—Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Brown, The Rolling Stones, Jackson Isabelle and AC/DC— and added their own twist. Then they cranked out hit after hit such as “Heavy,” “Lightning,” “Shapeless Art” and “Ruby.”

Five years later, The Glorious Sons have released Young Beauties and Fools which lays the bands souls bare on the record. The rock anthem, “Sawed Off Shotgun” was the song that generated excitement and fire in the band’s lungs.

“You get moments of excitement in the studio, when we wrote “Sawed Off Shotgun” where we all looked at each other and we knew we had come upon something really special.

That was definitely a big moment for us,” said vocalist and guitarist, Brett Emmons. “You just get these feelings and momentum, when you can feel momentum you know you have it and when you don’t that is a very scary feeling.”

The six year old band from Kingston, Ontario evolved their sound to find a more modern sound that would bring their music into the 21st Century.

Their wailing guitars and Emmon’s roaring vocals were refined into a cohesive sound with the help of Fast Friends, a band from Los Angeles who Emmons said was crucial to finding their own sound.

“There was some (nerves) involved, you don’t want to lose all these fans you made on the first album, we wanted to modernize our sound and make rock ‘n’ roll that sounds like it’s coming from the 21st Century. We knew we could do that but still needed the energy and erraticness of our sound that we had on our first album. It actually took us five or six months to mix the album because of that. We didn’t want to rely too much on modern technology because you could lose that edge that can’t be captured with anything but live sound and man-power.”

Keeping their edge was vital for Emmons and the band while they crafted their own vibe and niche that they would then pour into Young Beauties and Fools. Working closely alongside the band members of Fast Friends they were able to keep that and become the roaring success they are today.

“We are forever indebted to them, they gave us a sense of direction and we were able to create an identity for ourselves.”

The Glorious Sons gained international recognition when they shared the stage with The Rolling Stones in Marseille, France in front of approximately 59,000 people.

“It was pretty wild, I was pretty nervous to be honest,” said Emmons. “That is so many people and looking out that far (from the stage) and not being able to see features on peoples faces, it was wild.”

“There were some nerves and it was exciting. When we got on stage which is basically 10 times bigger than any stage we had done, I did Mick Jagger’s lap of the stage and I couldn’t breathe, I didn’t think I could finish. It happened so fast it was 35 minutes and the set was done, I was trying to find my family in the crowd but that was basically impossible. I got an ice cream cone and walked around the ocean in Marseille and then we bought a plane ticket home to rehearse for something else.”

The rising stars pride themselves on being a stand out band that brings a different sound and message to rock ‘n’ roll. Emmons believes in minimalism and isn’t fueled by the glitz and glamour side of the business of showing off things.

“I feel like we are part of a community of people that find that they are starting to get sick of the status quo and the synthetic state of the world. We are trying to reach people with natural tones and sounds.”

The Glorious Sons will complete their next 15 shows of their tour alongside fellow Ontario band, The Beaches, who Emmons describes as “one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on this continent”.

The Glorious Sons and The Beaches will perform at Prospera Place in Kelowna Nov. 5 tickets are available at selectyourtickets.com